Norman and Saxons, conflict and desire

Just in case anyone is wondering, that was me (above) wishing I was more in control when I write!  (And generally, really)  I still have this romantic vision of the writer sitting sedately at his or her desk, carefully planning and then quietly writing up the said plan.   My reality, as I have mentioned before is more of the tearing out of hair when characters refuse to do as they are told!

Luckily in His Captive Lady Wulf and Erica were much better at plotting than me!

Best, Carol

I think there must be Saxons in my heritage, because my family come from Yorkshire, but there may be some Norman in there somewhere.    (Someone did once trace the Townends back, using English parish records, and they got as far back as about 1493, with one William Townend!!   They were yoeman farmers back then.)

Whatever the real truth is (and I guess only a DNA test would reveal the answer to that one) I just know that medieval times have always fascinated me.   That goes for early medieval as well as the period just after the Norman conquest.    But the conquest itself, what an upheaval that must have been!    And what an extraordinary time in which to live.

The native Saxons thought (with reason) that everything had turned on its head as their own rulers were overthrown and a set of new ones took their place: Normans from across the sea who for the most part didn't even try to speak English!

Best wishes

Carol

Hi Michelle,

Yes, it is very odd how things change once the actual writing gets underway.    When  novel is finished, it can be quite extraordinary to look back and see how the earlier ideas have evolved - sometimes they have vanished altogether!    And also, how stuck one can get if one doesn't let the characters breathe.

But it all adds up to not feeling quite in control...

Best wishes, Carol

Yes, my characters always tell me where to go next.  Sometimes I refer to my outline/synopsis, but that's mostly for me to remember the plot points and main conflict and usually says vague things like "through a series of events."  LOL  I don't plan out whose point a view a scene will be in or even what the scene is about.  It evolves from the previous one.

Cheryl, Maybe I do too much of this, because it certainly slows me down when events change.   Perhaps next time I will try and trust my characters more, from the outset!

Best

Carol

Hi Georgina!

Yes, it does seem to be important to be able to lose control.   Slowly I am learning this and it is good to hear others have similar writing experiences.    Perhaps the story is fresher when it is (at least partly) new to the writer too.    The unconscious having its say, as it were.     But I once tried to explain to a friend that the finished product was nothing like the novel I had planned, and that the characters dictated events, and she looked at me as though I had sprouted horns.   'But it's your book!' she said. 

Er, not exactly.    Once started it would seem to belong to the characters...

Best wishes

Carol

so Carol, your ancestor lived at Town End hence the name. but Rae your fiance's family obviously came from an other Town's End  would'nt it be funny if there was a relationship and some scribe made the change because the bride and groom couldn't read or write???

Barbara,

I expect you are spot on!   And what worries me is - what did my ancestors do that they were only allowed to live at Town End?!!!   Were they there by chance or did they do something so dreadful that they were expelled to the village/city limits?  

The mind boggles, just a little!

Best wishes

Carol

I sometimes have to rewrite a scene a million times before i get the outcome I want, and most of the time, manipulating my characters to follow my outline doesn't turn out well.  I would love to know if anyone ever sticks 100% or even 80% to their original outline...

Thanks for saying hello!

Yes, it is amazing how much a novel can change.  I usually start jotting down the plot/characters/names/themes/research etc in a notebook and let it mull.  Then as soon as I can do a 20 point plot outline (it helps with pacing etc).   But when I go back once a novel is finished and look at the first shapings of it in the notebook, the gap between the original plan and the finished book is sometimes as wide as the Grand Canyon!!   (Which incidentally I have never seen and would love to see.)

Best wishes

Carol

Pushy yet ladylike, just the type of heroine I love.

I like to think that I have some exciting ancestors. My mom's side of the family are VERY Scandanavian. There must be an adventurer or two in there somewhere.

I live right next to a small community college and every year they have a Scandanavian folk festival, (big Swedish, Norwegian population in my town), and they usually display a Viking ship. I also am awakened by the sounds of bagpipes on the opening day. Men in kilts, wooohooo.

Carol, your ancestor lived at Town End hence the name. but Rae your fiance's family obviously came from an other Town's End  would'nt it be funny if there was a relationship and some scribe made the change because the bride and groom couldn't read or write???

My fiance' and I were discussing this very thing last night. We have no idea. But I'm thinking that you're spot on with how the name came about. But yeah, would make an interesting story to say the least about someone banished to the end of town because of something they did. Hmm. Rae

Carol, you know I love your stories!!!  I'm sure I've got some Saxon blood in my veins----plus the way my grandfather would talk about the English, you'd think he was fighting Edward I! 

I haven't gotten that far back in geneology, I know there's a Lane in Burke's Peerage, but only God knows if I'm related, there's WAY too many Lanes.  Then there are the Edens.....Nice short Saxon names, so I'm sure my family wasn't at all pleased to see the Normans show up.

 Although there was much conflict and harshness, I do believe very much that there were the honourable men---good overlords, and heros, but history records the loudest, men who made the wars.  The Robin Hood story had to come from somewhere!  Reality into legend?  I think so!

. . .which is probably why my characters end up running the show and taking me off in directions I never envisioned when I started their stories.

Congrats on the new release. . .I'll have to get it as soon as I get to a bookstore. 

Hi Michelle,

I have that happening too!  Too many possibilities.    It can be confusing until you settle on the one you are going with and sometimes it is not easy picking out which will be the best one. 

And sometimes even when a particular story has been chosen, I get into trouble with the exposition.   Should I tell this story this way, or that way?     That is probably why I end up being relieved when the characters start ordering me about!

And, yes, the word Norman is short for Norseman, man of the North.    

Hello to Denise too, nice to see you here!

Best wishes

Carol

Ooh, Merri,

Names, yes!   Names are a constant source of fascination!  I have always wanted to write a story with a Wulf hero.  I realise, there have been quite a few of them already (not least of which was Kathleen Woodiwiss's The Wolf and the Dove) but not many, I think, have Saewulf as the full name.    One of my treasured possessions is this book on the origins of English surnames.    (You will know this, but people didn't have surnames as such in the 11th century.  They did have last names which were related to a person's occupation, or where they lived, or who their parents were).   The book is also helpful with first names.   As are various other research books on my shelves.

As to why I like medieval, I can't explain it, not logically.  There is just this fascination.  It has me welling up with emotion when visiting Durham Cathedral and staring up at the great Norman pillars carved with chevrons; it has me boring my DH to death whenever we visit Normandy or Brittany and I drag the poor man round every castle in the area.    Why?    If someone could give me the answer that would be great!  

But I was wondering which names people might like for a medieval hero and heroine.    Any suggestions?

How about Aude for the lady, and Sir Guy for the knight?  I would love to hear everyone's ideas!

Best,

Carol

I didn't even think Wolf qand the other romance when I saw the blurb on your book but thought of Wulfstan but it is doubly cool to refer to both a real historic name and another romance. A neat idea really. I love the way new books keep others alive like that. Some variations on lesser known Beowulf names? It's sort of fun to see variations of familiar names from the period. For the French, Guy sounds good. Aude is cool too. When I am punchy, I'd love to see Hwaet (what) as a name just because my favorite Anglo-Saxon poem (Dream of he Rood) starts that way. (also love the Wanderer and the Seafarer poems) but that probably wouldn't work for a main character. A humorous moment perhaps with a very minor character maybe. I love your romances because they bring to life a period of time that just is not easy linguistically.

I have always been partial to Brand.

 Anyway, here is a website that lists some Male anglo saxon names.

http://www.20000-names.com/male_anglo_saxon_names.htm

Michelle  S

Yes, I found the list  just as I was finishing Taken. I had suddenly realised that my chosen name of my heroine -- Emma did not work. Emma becomes popular later in the period. Hence the reason why I chose Annis. It also worked better for the character.

But there again,I have a long history of changing names as I write. It drives my cp insane.

Michelle S

Emma comes in about late 9th century and gets to hugely popular, I think.

In my case I just used the name for my next heroine -- Emma Harrison in A Christmas Wedding Wager.Because when the time to make the change, I wasn't happy with her name of Pheobe. I havesince used Phoebe as well, but she needed a different story.

But sometimes, the name does not feel right for a certain character and you have to try out differentones. I used to have a hard time with the Roman names.

And sometimes, it can be like a slight nag. The name sort of works but it doesn't. Then of course there is always the problem of if you decide to write a secondary's story...it has to be a name you can love.

But my children just laugh when their Engish teacher says very earnestly that ALL authors chose names with great care and would rather cut off their hands than change a name. It simply depends on the demands of the story.

Michelle S

Carol and Michelle, I have to say that you both are making me very eager to read your books.  Both have great covers too.  I love the Anglo-Saxon period and I love the Old Norse stories!  I think it is wonderful to have romance writer bring these periods to modern readers in a way that makes a reader feel the period without all the linguistic issues.  I think names can really add to the period feel.

I think my ancestry is English, Scottish and Irish and my husband's is Scandanavian.  Names do have power..an d memory too.  It means a lot to me to be the namesake of my grandmother and was so excited to discover a second cousin with not only my full name but my nickname "Merri".

Carol --

Don't fret about titles. TPTB will come up with one.

A Christmas Wedding  Wager was orginally entitled Northern Christmas Carol.

I choose a title that means I can write the book. It is up to TPTB to choose a title that reflects their marketing needs. There are no many reasons why a perfectly good title might not be acceptable to TPTB My choice has only mirrored TPTB choice twice in 10 books.

MIchelle S

Yes, it went well, but the presenter was very blokey and did not like hookey titles. Nor did he like clinch covers.

He also muttered something about formulas. SIGH.

Michelle S

Carol, I just started reading your book and MIchelle's is my next HH Medieval read and then Joanne Rock's. Finally getting to my Medievals and I am one happy reader!

Now that I have started reading your book, Carol, I see what you mean about the names and my medieval heart is aflutter!

You brought back so many personal memories too.

Getting to the formula thing, it really irritates me me to hear this. I think that and POV are the two most over-used and wrongly used terms people use when talking about romance to make themselves look intelligent but often I find it a poor excuse for a lack of reading imagination or attention. You know, in the Middle Ages, the mark of a great story was different. Sometimes a story would be told by several authors and each author would bring to the story new details and contexts and THAT was the mark of genius or a great story...how it was told. Take the story of the wedding of Sir Gawain for which we have many versions, including John Gower's and Chaucer's..the entire meaning changes once it gets in a different author's imagination. I have read thousands and thousands of pages of medieval arthurian romance and each one is unique...but it is the details that count, kind of like what Donna Alward said in a blog a while ago. Yes, I have read some books that seem to lack imagination or spirit and maybe they are formulaic because they lack details but I think people fling that word around when they are lazy readers.... people need to get a grip...every genre has certain formulas or conventions that make it this genre rather than that genre. Romance, mystery, suspense.... dream vision poetry, arthurian romance, etc from a more medieval perspective. Well, I apologize for going on too long. I think it just triggers a button because my oral defense for my thesis was all about genre theory. I did not hear the interview but after those experiences, I get a bit suspicious when I see people use certain words like formula too gratuitously.

I am only halfway through the book today, but I just had to pop in to tell you...page 88, last paragraph --- Awesome! Very cool...so subtle but so wonderful!